


How can I have sent you away ?

by Shae_la_Hyene



Series: Hurt Capri fics named after MLP fansongs [4]
Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, MCD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:00:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29173794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shae_la_Hyene/pseuds/Shae_la_Hyene
Summary: Laurent waits for Damen to come back from Charcy.He knows he'll probably be angry, because Laurent failed the men there, and didn't show up as planned.He'd be right to be angry.But it's not Damen who enters his tent.
Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince)
Series: Hurt Capri fics named after MLP fansongs [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948678
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	How can I have sent you away ?

Laurent was nervous.  
He was barely preventing himself from fidgeting even as Paschal finished patching him up. He had wanted to scarf Laurent’s arm and prevented him to use it until it was healed properly, Laurent refused. He couldn’t afford it.  
Soon enough, those who survived Charcy would arrive, and he’d have to stand in front of his men, and more importantly withstand their anger for the ones that didn’t come back.  
He wouldn’t do that with his arm in a scarf.  
He’ll have to face Damen, too, but he’ll be Damianos now. They had never been two different persons, but somehow it still felt like they had.  
Damianos would probably be angry at him too, for not coming to Charcy as he promised. And Laurent wasn’t one to find excuses for himself. He failed. He let himself be captured, and stayed this way far too long. If he had managed the situation better, he would have been in time to support his men and the akielon army he relied on.  
The whole lot of them would be right to be angry at Laurent.  
Damen, who always believed Laurent was a good person, finally proven wrong.  
They both had a lot to be angry at each other about.  
Their next meeting could go wrong really fast. And he couldn’t afford it. He needed the akielon army.  
But, somehow, he knew that the meeting could go in a thousand other ways. It had always been so hard to try to predict Damen. That was what saved them more than once.  
Laurent couldn’t afford to trust anyone. Yet, somehow, it appeared he had started trusting Damen, of all people.  
Was it before, or after he spread for him ?  
After Paschal finished, he helped Laurent into his jacket, tight and spotless, it wouldn’t show anything.  
As he was finishing up the last laces, a commotion outside informed him of the arrival of his guest.  
“Please leave us, Paschal,” he ordered softly. “From the back, if you don’t mind.”  
Tying the knot at his throat, he went to the front of the tent, albeit painfully, to lean against the tent pole, bracing himself to face his brother’s killer anew.  
When the tent flap opened, he forced all his body to clench, frozen to not let any weakness show.  
But it was not Damen who entered the tent.  
The man looked like him, a broad shouldered dark skinned akielon, albeit shorter and with longer hair. His armor talked of a general, maybe even a kyros. Nikandros ?  
“Your Highness,” the man said, standing in front of him. “You look surprised. I don’t meet your expectations ? You meet mine.”  
Laurent took in everything. His apparent tiredness from fighting for hours, the blood smeared all over him, the red rimming his eyes.  
“I thought your King would meet me, Kyros,” Laurent said in an icy voice, his appearance still controlled.  
Nikandros gulped with difficulty, his eyes lost on the tent panel.  
No.  
“My King is dead,” Nikandros said finally.  
No.  
Damen couldn’t die.  
“But I suppose that was your plan all along, sending us to our deaths. I suppose you finally got your revenge. Was it worth it ?”  
Laurent forced himself to start breathing again.  
He snorted, hating the sound of it.  
“He would have been more useful alive, at least for now. How did it happen ?”  
Was he struck down by a sword, like Auguste ?  
Did he take an arrow he couldn’t see, like Aleron ?  
Did it matter ?  
Nikandros groaned.  
“You sent us to die at Charcy and then you didn’t show up, as your men and Damen seemed so sure you would !” Nikandros shouted angrily. “And now he’s dead, like half your own men. So, tell me. Was it worth it ?”  
Laurent glared at him.  
“I didn’t plan for your King to die, Kyros. I expected him to win that battle and live. Did you come here to negotiate a treaty, or to blame me for his lack of judgment ?”  
It was true, Laurent admitted to himself. He had never expected Damen to die in the battle. He had seen him fight. He looked invincible. For a moment, he had almost believed he was indeed better than Auguste, that his brother couldn’t have won.  
And yet he fell.  
It didn’t make sense.  
It had to be something, something unexpected, a traitorous archer taking him by surprise if that was even possible. Damianos was not one to just die in a battle.  
Of all the possible outcomes of that situation, Laurent hadn’t planned for this one.  
But he’d manage. He had to.  
Nikandros snorted derisively.  
“Negotiate ?” he asked. “I don’t really see what you’d have to offer when you’re already in my debt.”  
“Now that you know Kastor betrayed Damianos and faked his death, you’ll want revenge. To take him down, you’ll need me. And to prove that my uncle the Regent manipulated him into killing his father and sending his brother as a slave, I have the one that struck the deal. Vere’s ambassador to Akielos was the one to make Kastor sign the contract, and I have the ambassador, right there, in the dungeons, and with him the proof of your claim.”  
Nikandros narrowed his eyes at him.  
“You assume that this is what I want,” he said finally. “That I’d be ready to throw my country into a civil war for a King that is not even here anymore to get crowned, and to invite you, a veretian snake, in the middle of it.”  
“If you weren’t ready to do it, you wouldn’t have come to Ravenel in the first place.”  
Nikandros shrugged, evading his eyes.  
“This isn’t up to me,” he said. “I have to consult with my generals.”  
Laurent dismissed it.  
“Of course it’s up to you, you’re their Kyros, they’ll follow you.”  
He pulled out his treaty, already properly prepared with the exact list of the resources Laurent could bring into the alliance. It was too short to be an easy negotiation, and he knew it.  
Maybe Damen would have agreed despite it, for he knew how Laurent was stuck.  
“Maybe it would help you to know that my uncle left Arles a few days ago. I learned it here. Charcy was only a distraction, and he sailed for Ios already. He may even be there as we speak, whispering sweet nothings in Kastor’s ear and spreading poison all over. If I want to face him to regain my throne, I’ll have to be there, so I’ll march toward Ios sooner or later, with or without you.”  
Nikandros took offence.  
“We wouldn’t let you,” he growled.  
“So come with me,” Laurent retorted. “Take down the usurper, avenge your friend. Free your kingdom. You know you want to do it.”  
Nikandros seemed to hesitate a long moment, but in the end he advanced with a groan, taking the treaty in hand.  
“I’m going to regret this,” he mumbled between his teeth upon reading.  
“Sign here,” Laurent said, his voice saccharine sweet.  
Nikandros groaned again, but signed anyway.  
After that, he glared at Laurent again, and left the tent.  
A moment after, Laurent collapsed on the floor, reality finally crushing down on him.  
Damen was dead.  
The man had an infuriating way of doing the opposite of what was expected of him.  
Not being the barbarian whom it would be easy to hate.  
Defying expectations and disturbing Uncle’s plans.  
Kissing him sweetly when Laurent expected to just be taken.  
Dying. When Laurent wasn’t sure that it was what he wanted anymore.  
He had felt ashamed of himself to ever… feel anything else than hatred for his brother’s killer. But he had to admit that was not all there was anymore. There was respect, hard won. Maybe there had been love. Maybe it could have turned into love, someday, had it been allowed to shift.  
But it wouldn’t turn into anything anymore, because Damen was dead.  
Like everyone else he dared to care about.  
Auguste. Nicaise. Maybe he even cared about Aimeric a little. Some sort of kinship.  
All of Uncle’s boys were dead now.  
Laurent was next on the list.  
It would be stupid to think he could avoid his fate when Uncle took each of them one by one. And now he had taken Damen too, maybe unexpectedly.  
Laurent took a deep breath, even as tears started running on his face.  
He was alone now, more alone than ever. Everyone he could fight for was gone, and he was left all alone.  
He couldn’t collapse, he couldn’t fail.  
A slip, and the akielon army would leave him, treaty or not. He’ll have to be in control every second to make sure they stay by his side, to keep them all alive.  
But what was the point ?  
He was going to die. Like everyone else, like every other boy that went into his uncle’s bed. Like invincible Damen.  
If even him couldn’t defy his uncle and live, how was Laurent supposed to ?  
A silent sob wretched him, and he leaned his back against the pole again.  
Damen would never see Ios again. He’d never go home, never be King again and claim his throne.  
Maybe he should have left when he had the occasion, for he would be in Akielos, now, riding hard to fight his own battle. Not dying in Laurent’s.  
Maybe Laurent shouldn’t have agreed when Damen offered to stay and lead the troops to Charcy. Probably. He would still be alive if he had left, that morning, as planned.  
But he didn’t, and there was no room for regrets. Damen was dead.  
It was too soon. Laurent needed him.  
He needed him to stay close, and let him figure out what they were to each other, and what he wanted, and what he really felt. He hadn’t been able to think it through, before.  
He had thought that it was just desire, that it would go by bedding him. It didn’t, and it left Laurent even more confused. He had wanted more, he had almost wanted everything he could get from Damen. And Damen looked like he would have given him all that. His face was always so open. And now whatever feeling it could have been was useless, because Damen was gone, and Laurent was left alone with no one left to love.  
Once again.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a tumblr post by lost-in-fictionn wondering "what if Damen died at Charcy ? Laurent would be a mess."  
> Yes, yes he is.


End file.
